By Norm Frauenheim-
Gennady Golovkin is the pound for-pound champion in waiting. Emphasis on the waiting.
No telling when that wait will end. But it got a predictable, yet tiresome extension with the announcement last week that Canelo Alvarez will fight Amir Khan on May 7.
Golovkin has little choice but to stay busy, prepared and hopeful for a shot at Canelo later in the year, perhaps September. GGG management looked up and down the list of options and was left with an April 23 bout against Dominic Wade, who landed the mandatory shot at GGG’s middleweight title when the IBF’s No. 1-rated Tureano Johnson withdrew because of a shoulder injury.
Never heard of Wade? Didn’t think so. Then again, Johnson, of the Bahamas, isn’t exactly a name that generates a buzz. More like: Who’s he?
It’s all-too-familiar and thoroughly unfair to GGG, who is spending his prime in the waiting room. He’ll be 34 on April 8, 15 days before his pound-for-pound skill figures to make a wreck out of Wade.
There’s nobody to blame but a business ruled by the so-called A-side, B-side equation that, in the end, often adds up to rubbish.
Canelo is making GGG wait because he can. Canelo is projected to be the sport’s next pay-per-view star. The evidence of that was in the 900,000 buys he generated in his victory over Miguel Cotto in November. GGG can only counter with the 150,000 PPV number he posted in his last outing, a stoppage of David Lemieux in October.
The difference gives Canelo 750,000 reasons he can tell GGG to wait, wait all over again. Publically, at least, each side of the promotional and management equation has assured a skeptical fan base that Canelo-GGG will happen. A possible date, Sept. 17, and even a place, the Dallas Cowboys NFL Stadium, have been reported.
But there are doubts. Canelo’s decision to face Khan raises questions about whether he really wants to fight a true 160 pounder. He’ll fight Khan, a junior-welterweight just a few years ago, at the familiar 155-pound catch-weight for the WBC title he took from Cotto.
Canelo is called the lineal middleweight champion. Trace the title from Sergio Martinez to Cotto and Canelo, and, yeah, it’s lineal. The catch, however, is how that line of succession has been corrupted by the weight. Canelo might be the lineal champ, but GGG is the real one.
The unresolved issue is whether Canelo will come off the 155-pound marker and agree to fight GGG at the traditional 160.
Even if he does the expected and overwhelms Khan, there still won’t be a fight against a true middleweight contender on Canelo’s resume. If Canelo struggles to beat Khan, then what? If he loses, GGG management might regret the day that Andre Ward decided to go up to light-heavy in anticipation of a potential pound-for-pound confrontation with Sergey Kovalev.
Canelo’s bargaining power has been met with some early moves from GGG’s K2 brain trust. In Wade, Tom Loeffler created potential leverage, which could lead to a very big middleweight fight in its own right if the Canelo possibility falls apart. Wade’s promoter is Al Haymon, who also happens to promote Daniel Jacobs.
Jacobs is coming off his stunning, first-round stoppage of Peter Quillin for a piece of the middleweight title.
“From our side, there wouldn’t be any obstacles to making that fight,” Loeffler told The Ring’s Mitch Abramson.
Call it a warning shot and an acknowledgement that GGG can’t wait much longer.
